Find your calm when the going gets tough

Learn a skill to help you have less stress in your life, work, and relationships

Focusing Resources – Inner Relationship Focusing

Find your calm when the going gets tough.

Learn a skill to help you have less stress in your life, work, and relationships.

Welcome!

You’re probably here because you know something in your life isn’t quite right. Maybe you’re tired all the time, stressed out, annoyed. You feel drained or unsatisfied. Maybe your patience seems to have reached an all-time low and you find yourself snapping at people at the drop of a hat. We’ve all been there.

Want to get free of the small stuff, hold a larger perspective of life events, and make better decisions? You’re in the right place!

Our free e-course, Get Bigger Than What’s Bugging You, consists of 5 daily lessons, delivered right to your inbox. In each one, you get a practice that makes an immediate difference in how you approach your life right now, today, this moment.

Each practice adds to your resources and fits with the others. By the end, you’ll have 5 integrated ways to shift your energy and Get Bigger Than What’s Bugging You!

“I thought the whole e-course was AMAZING! Day one made a difference and by day five, I was hooked. Get Bigger Than What’s Bugging You is my new go-to process whenever I feel anything negative.”

– Kris Gannaway, metalsmith, Dallas, TX

Picture This:

Being able to take a breath when you first feel the impulse to yell so you can respond calmly instead.

Going home at the end of the workday feeling happy about how you communicated with colleagues during a difficult meeting.

Your relationships are thriving because you’ve learned how to listen in a way that fosters genuine connection.

Are you ready to have friends and family marvel at how you keep your cool when challenges arise? It’s a superpower we can help you cultivate. Here’s how you can get started:

Step One

Get your free e-course and begin today.

Step Two

Every day for the next 5 days (and beyond) use the 5 powerful practices from your e-course.

Step Three

As you practice, you’ll see your reaction to stress shrink and your self-acceptance/calm grow.

Wondering how we can help?

Hi! I’m Ann Weiser Cornell.

After more than 35 years teaching Focusing around the world, I set out to help even more people discover how to Get Bigger than What’s Bugging Them.

Why? Well, feelings are a part of life… but they often take us over and then we do things we later regret. It doesn’t have to be like that.

You? You want to find a new way forward that doesn’t end in blowing up or withdrawing when you get hit by strong emotions. The power to change that pattern – permanently – can be yours.

Hope you’ll join us!

Our free e-course is an introduction to a practical life skill called Focusing.

Focusing is a body-oriented process of self-awareness and emotional healing. It’s as simple as noticing how you feel and then having a conversation with your feelings in which you do most of the listening.

Focusing starts with the experience of feeling something in your body related to what’s going on in your life. Like when you get a jittery feeling in your stomach as you stand up to give a presentation. Or when you feel a tightness in your chest as you anticipate making a crucial phone call. Those feelings are what we call a “felt sense” – a body sensation that is meaningful.

So what do you do when you get one of those feelings? If you’re like most of us, you try to get rid of it. Maybe you curse it a little, or maybe you put yourself down. Maybe you do deep breathing exercises, or reach for a glass of wine.

What doesn’t occur to you, unless you know Focusing, is to listen to the feeling, to let it speak to you.

When you let the feeling speak to you, you’re allowing yourself to be open to the depth and richness of your whole self. And when you listen to the feeling, it’s much more likely to relax, release, and let you go on with what you’re doing in a clear and centered way.

The results of listening to your body in this way are insight, physical release, and positive life change. You understand yourself better, you feel better, and you act in ways that are more likely to create the life you want.

“With Focusing, we learn how to welcome, acknowledge, and accept all our responses to life-whatever they are. We can feel all our variety and subtlety, all our richness and complexity.”
– Ann Weiser Cornell

3 Things That Set Focusing Apart

It’s research based.

Focusing has been linked in over 50 research studies with positive outcomes in therapy. The early studies were done by Eugene Gendlin.

Listening is the key.

In this noisy world where everything is constantly vying for attention, people learn to tune out to survive. Focusing helps you tune back into the most important thing – You! Not only do you become more attuned to yourself, but you get to work with someone who is right there with you deeply listening to your every word.

You’re the expert.

As the person doing Focusing, YOU are the expert. We believe that you know YOU the best. That’s why, with Focusing, you don’t need an expert. Many other methods require a practitioner to facilitate, but not Focusing! Focusing empowers YOU to make your own choices and get in touch with your own truth.

Where Did Focusing Come From?

Focusing was discovered in the late 1950s when Professor Eugene Gendlin of the University of Chicago researched the question: “Why is psychotherapy helpful for some people, but not others?”

Gendlin and his colleagues studied recordings of hundreds of therapy sessions and made a fascinating and important discovery: successful therapy clients were able to do something more than worry about the future or react to the past. They could pause and pay attention to what was happening in the present moment, in their bodies, in response to the problem at hand. Sometimes in ways that words could not easily convey. Gendlin called this a “felt sense,” and developed the method he called “Focusing” so that anyone could learn this profound way of experiencing breakthroughs in whatever has been holding them back.

Focusing allows you to get past what has been making you stuck, using the body-mind’s inherent ability to heal and live forward into new possibilities. Inner Relationship Focusing is a further development of Focusing created over many years of work by Ann Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin.

If you’re:

Feeling Hopelessly Stuck…

Okay, But Things Could Be Better…

Feeling Good and Want to Help Others…

You belong here.We offer support for people just like you.

Struggling with Specific Issues?

Sometimes you already know you want help with a specific life issue like the Urge to Indulge, Healing Your Relationship with Money, Obsessive Thoughts, and more.

LEARN MORE

DISABILITY ACCESS

We welcome persons with disabilities who need accommodations in order to take our trainings to contact us to discuss your specific needs.

We will make every effort to make it possible for you to participate fully.

DISCLAIMER

This site does not provide medical or any other health care or fitness advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The site and its services are for informational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, examination, diagnosis, or treatment.

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DIVERSITY POLICY

Focusing Resources Inc is committed to valuing the fundamental uniqueness of each individual we encounter, whether that person is an employee, a teacher, a class participant, or a Focusing client. Respect for the individual’s needs, goals, values, and point of view is at the heart of our mission.

All individuals, regardless of race, color, age, nationality, gender identity (including transgender and non-binary status), religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, political affiliation, or status as a parent will be treated with respect and dignity by Focusing Resources.